At the end of a TIME column spelling out the ways in which President Obama’s State of the Union speech echoed Republican themes (because campaigning Democrats can’t rely on honesty when they want to win), Joe Klein offers us this observation:
It is a reminder that the Constitution was a stitching device, written to unify and control the states, not merely to liberate them.
Control the states? Really? I’m sure that would have been news to the Founders. They feared control from a central government, as Troy Kickler has documented.
During their time, Antifederalists questioned every attempt to give more power to the national government, and demanded explanations for each effort to do so. The Federalists, on the other hand, believed the national government should be given certain powers, such as the ability to raise an army, but the powers should remain few and limited. Although the two camps opposed each other, by and large both defended liberty. They would be disappointed with the trajectory of the nation and the expansion of government over the past century.
